Foeckler, one of the first UGA social work professors, dies at 95

Merle Marie Foeckler, a long-time faculty member in the University of Georgia's School of Social Work, died this week in North Carolina at age 95.

Except for Dean Charles Stewart, Foeckler was the last surviving faculty member from the group that started UGA's School of Social Work in 1964, Stewart said.

"She was a lovely, vivacious woman," said Stewart, who hired her away from Florida State University.

Stewart said he chose Foeckler because he wanted an experienced faculty member, respected by colleagues and students, to help start UGA's School of Social Work in 1964.

At UGA, Foeckler was in charge of the student practicum program - training in the field - and kept in touch with many of her students for years beyond college.

"They looked upon her as a mentor," said Richard Anderson, who had an office next to Foeckler's in the School of Social Work before Foeckler retired in 1982.

Foeckler's interests were many and broad, said friend John Garst, a retired UGA chemistry professor who met the social work professor in an Athens gourmet club.

"She was just a wonderful, intelligent, spirited woman," he said. "She had a lively personality. She wasn't at all timid or shy."

Foeckler was also an accomplished visual artist, wrote poetry, and was fond of music and dancing, among her many other interests.

"She was a great dancer. She was lots of fun to be with," said Allie Kilpatrick of Milledgeville, who was in UGA's first class of social work students.

On the first day of classes, Foeckler had students write an essay on the quote "no man is an island," said Kilpatrick.

But training students in social work was very serious for Foeckler, Kilpatrick said.

"She was very exacting," she said.

Foeckler had a long career even before coming to UGA.

A native of New Orleans, she went to college at that city's Tulane University and then got a master's degree in social work from Columbia University, with later study at the University of Chicago. She served as a medical social worker with the American Red Cross in military hospitals during World War II and the Korean Conflict, and later at Duke University before moving on to Tallahassee and Florida State.

Foeckler didn't marry until her late 50s, after meeting a Swedish army officer, Nore Finnberg, at a European meeting. She described their 20 years together until his death as very happy, Anderson recalled. After they married, the couple summered in Sweden, where she occasionally lectured on social work.

A civil rights activist and frequent volunteer, Foeckler was the president of the board of Hospice of Athens, a consultant for volunteers with AIDS Athens, and a leader with the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Athens.

She had moved to Brevard, N.C., more than a decade ago, but continued to participate in community groups such as the American Association of University Women and the Democratic Party, according to an obituary prepared by her good friend and fellow social worker Katie Thompson.